Matthew D. Taylor delivered the sermon “‘Render unto Caesar’: Preaching the Gospel in an Era of Christian Power” during Candler worship on September 25, 2025, as part of the Pastoral Leadership in the Time of Christian Nationalism lecture series. The service was followed by a talkback/Q&A with service attendees.
Taylor is the senior Christian scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies in Baltimore, where he specializes in American Christianity, American Islam, Christian extremism, and religious politics. He is the author of The Violent Take It by Force: The Christian Movement that is Threatening Our Democracy (Broadleaf, 2024), and Scripture People: Salafi Muslims in Evangelical Christians’ America (Cambridge, 2023). Taylor holds a PhD in religious studies and Muslim-Christian relations from Georgetown University and an MA in theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. He also serves as an associate fellow at the Center for Peace Diplomacy in New Orleans, where he works on preventing religion-related violence surrounding U.S. elections.